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Our last post introduced one of Android 4.3's more notable security features -- improved credential storage, and while there are a few other enhancements worth discussing, this post will slightly change direction. As mentioned previously, mobile devices can include some form of a Secure Element (SE), but a smart card based UICC (usually called just 'SIM card') is almost universally present. Virtually all SIM cards in use today are programmable and thus can be used as a SE. Continuing the topic of hardware-backed security, we will now look into how SIMs can be programmed and used to enhance the security of Android applications.
SIM cards
First, a few words about terminology: while the correct term for modern mobile devices is UICC (Universal Integrated Circuit Card), since the goal of this post is not to discuss the differences between mobile networks, we will usually call it a 'SIM card' and only make the distinction when necessary.
So what is a SIM card? 'SIM…